ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - A - THE TIGER (Panthera tigris)

[peter]

A VERY BULKY SOUTH INDIA TIGER

This post is about an editorial I read in the JBNHS many years ago. The title is 'On the methods of measuring tigers' and it was published in Volume 27 (Miscellaneous Notes, No. IV, pp. 391-394). This means methods, big cats and measurements were already discussed in the first decades of the previous century. Better still, methods were discussed in the 19th century. In 1879, to be more precise.

As a result of questions of members about measurements of big cats published in the JBNHS, the editors decided to restart the ancient debate on methods. In their editorial, the editors used a few extracts from a letter of Joe Shillingford (from Purneah) written in November 1879 (...). The letter was published in 'The Asian' (a magazin) of December 23, 1879.

A century and a half after the letter was written, one wonders if the issue on big cats, methods and measurements will ever be resolved in a satisfying way. My guess is no, as the letter and the debate didn't have the intended effect. In the last decade of the 19th century, hunters initially adopted the new method ('between pegs'), but many returned to the trusted method ('over curves') after a few years of trial and error. The reason was it often proved difficult to measure a big cat in a straight line. In many parts of wild India, a flat piece of ground was not easy to find and most hunters just didn't have the means to move a heavy big cat for many miles.     

After WWII, the debate on methods apparently was forgotten. The result is many hunters and some biologists still measure big cats 'over curves' today. A great pity.   

The editorial on methods is interesting. The writer of the letter (Joe Shillingford), after explaining how the tigers he shot were measured, compared an 11.0 tiger shot in Purneah with a 10.2 tiger shot in southern India. These tigers, both measured 'over curves',  might have measured 10.6 and 9.8 'between pegs'.

The details of the tiger shot in southern India are staggering. The circumference of his chest (6.1) and skull (3.5) are unsurpassed as far as I know. One can only imagine the size of the limbs that carried his great bulk. It is interesting to read that both Shillingford and another hunter ('Young Nimrod') thought tigers in central and southern India, although not as long as those in Bengal, were bigger:   

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

One could conclude that the giant shot in southern India would have been the exception to the rule. With a chest like that, he probably was. But there are more reliable reports about very big tigers shot in southern India.

Hicks shot a big male tiger in Mysore. At 9.7 (292,10 cm.) 'between pegs', this tiger had a chest circumference of 5.4 (162,56 cm.), a neck circumference of 3.2 (96,52 cm.) and a skull circumference of 3.6 (106,68 cm.). Quite a bit larger than the Sauraha tiger:

*This image is copyright of its original author

 
Old One Eye, shot by Lt.-Gen. G.F. Waugh (US Army) in the northwestern part of the Nilgiris Hills in 1931, was 11.0 (335,28 cm.) 'over curves' and had a 167,64 cm. body circumference (chest or belly). This tiger, probably gorged, was estimated at 700 pounds.

There is a lot more on large tigers shot in southern and central India. Although they do not reach the length of large males in northern India (same for skulls), they quite often seem to be bulkier. More than once, I read the muscular development of tigers shot in southern India was phenomenal. 

In order to compare the giant mentioned above with some exceptional tigers shot in northeast India, I added the letter of Hawkins published in the JBNHS. Both tigers were long and quite bulky, but they didn't compare to the gladiator shot in southern India:

*This image is copyright of its original author

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